The village is faced with a tough - and expensive - call over radium in well

4:22 PM,
Feb. 27, 2013

Lena Village President Ken Linzmeyer talks about radium problems with the village's Well No. 1.

Written by

The village of Lena appears to be on the brink of needing to spend several $100,000 to solve a problem none of its 527 residents can see, hear, smell, taste or feel.

One of the two wells that supply drinking water to the 273 households and several businesses in the village has been found to contain prohibited levels of radium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal that can pose a cancer risk.

Filtration or a whole new well appear to be the village's only options, both of which are very expensive, probably at least $200,000 to $330,000, said Chris Linskens, public water supply engineer for the ...